God is the Gospel | Chapters 1-4

"Until the gospel events of Good Friday and Easter and the gospel promises of justification and eternal life lead you to behold and embrace God himself as your highest joy, you have not embraced the gospel of God. You have embraced some of his gifts. You have rejoiced over some of his rewards. You have marveled at some of his miracles. But you have not yet been awakened to why the gifts, the rewards, and the miracles have come. They have come for one great reason: that you might behold forever the glory of God in Christ, and by beholding become the kind of person who delights in God above all things, and by delighting display this supreme beauty and worthy with ever-increasing brightness and bliss forever."

"My [John Piper] burden in this book is to make it as clear as I can that preachers can preach on these great aspects of the gospel and yet never take people to the goal of the gospel. Preachers can say dozens of true and wonderful things about the gospel and not lead people to where the gospel is leading. People can hear the gospel preached, or read it in their Bibles, and not see the final aim of the gospel that makes the good news good. What makes all the events of Good Friday and Easter and all the promises they secure good news is that they lead us to God."

"Every person should be required to answer the question, 'Why is it good news to you that your sins are forgiven?' 'Why is is good news to you that you stand righteous in the courtroom of the Judge of the universe?' The reason this must be asked is that there are seemingly biblical answers that totally ignore the gift of God himself. A person may answer, 'Being forgiven is good news because I don't want to go to hell.' Or a person may answer, 'Being forgiven is good news because a guilty conscience is a horrible thing, and I get great relief when I believe my sins are forgiven.' Or a person may answer, 'I want to got o heaven.' But then we must ask why they want to go to heaven. They might answer, 'Because the alternative is painful.' Or 'because my deceased wife is there.' Or 'because there will be a new heaven and new earth where justice and beauty will finally be everywhere.
     What's wrong with these answers? It's true that no one should want to go to hell. Forgiveness does indeed relieve a guilty conscience. In heaven we will be restored to loved ones who died in Christ, and we will escape the pain of hell and enjoy the justice and beauty of the new earth. All that is true. So what's wrong with those answers? What's wrong with them is that they do not treat God as the final and highest good of the gospel. They do not express a supreme desire to be with God. God was not even mentioned. Only his gifts were mentioned. These gifts are precious. But they are not God. And they are not the gospel if God himself is not cherished as the supreme gift of the gospel. That is, if God is not treasured as the ultimate gift of the gospel, none of his gifts will be gospel, good news. And if God is treasured as the supremely valuable gift of the gospel, then all the other lesser gifts will be enjoyed as well."

"Only one thing is [the chief good or highest goal of the gospel]: seeing and savoring God himself, being changed into the image of his Son so that more and more we delight in and display God's infinite beauty and worth."


"Propitiation, redemption, forgiveness, imputation, sanctification, liberation, healing, heaven - none of these is good news except for one reason: they bring us to God for our everlasting enjoyment of him. If we believe all these things have happened to us, but do not embrace them for the sake of getting to God, they have not happened to us."

"Christ did not die to forgive sinners who go on treasuring anything above seeing and savoring God."

"People who would be happy in heaven if Christ were not there, will not be there."

"The gospel is not a way to get people to heaven; it is a way to get people to God. It's a way of overcoming every obstacle to everlasting joy in God. If we don't want God above all things, we have not been converted by the gospel."

"The human heart was made to stand in awe of such ultimate excellence. We were made to admire Jesus Christ, the Son of God."

"The ability to see spiritual beauty is not unwavering. There are ups and downs in our fellowship with Christ. There are times of beclouded visions, especially if our sin gets the upper hand in our lives for a season."

"Spiritual seeing is seeing spiritual things for what they are - that is, seeing them as beautiful and valuable as they really are."

"The ultimate good of the gospel is seeing and savoring the beauty and value of God...The ultimate aim of the gospel is the display of God's glory and the removal of every obstacle to our seeing it and savoring it as our highest treasure. 'Behold your God!' is the most gracious command and the best gift of the gospel. If we do not see him and savor him as our greatest fortune, we have not obeyed or believed the gospel."

"We are made for Christ, and Christ died so that every obstacle would be removed that keeps us from seeing and savoring the most satisfying treasure in the universe - namely, Christ, who is the image of God."

"Satan is not mainly interested in causing us misery. He is mainly interested in making Christ look bad. He hates Christ. And hates the glory of Christ. He will do all he can to keep people from seeing Christ as glorious. The gospel is God's instrument for liberating people from exulting in self to exulting in Christ. Therefore Satan hates the gospel."

"[Christ] is the ultimate gift and treasure of the gospel."

Reader's Thoughts:
I've recently been greatly convicted about how selfish and self-centered I am. The Lord is using many things and people, including this book, to remind me that life is not about me. The gospel is not about me. Even Satan's tempting is not about me. Life is about God glorified. The gospel is about God glorified. Satan's temps, because He knows that God is glorified..and he hates that. So who am I to live life for me? Who am I to live spiritually only thinking about the spiritual benefits or gifts from the gospel? And who am I to blame my hardship on Satan. He's not just trying to bring me misery. He doesn't even care about me. He cares about trying to defame God. But God is victorious. God is the gospel. God is glorified. Everything is about Him. And I want to treasure Him. I want to savior Him. I want to know Him. I want to exult Him. The gospel frees me to stop exulting in myself, and start exulting in Him. That truly is liberating. But I am also reminded that just because I'm starting to get this now, I am human. My understanding and my seeing of His beauty, worth, satisfying nature are not unwavering. I need to remind myself of these truths. I need Him every hour.

God is the Gospel | Introduction

Just started reading God is the Gospel by John Piper the other day. It's great. And I have only finished the introduction. Here are some quotes:

• "The Bible teaches that the best and final gift of God's love is the enjoyment of God's beauty."
• (In light of Psalm 27:4 + Philippians 3:8)..."The best and final gift of the gospel is that we gain Christ...This is the all encompassing gift of God's love through the gospel - to see and savor the glory of Christ forever."
• "...we have turned the love of God and the gospel of Christ into a divine endorsement of our delight in many lesser things, especially the delight in our being made much of."
• "Do you feel more loved because God makes much of you, or because, at the cost of his Son, he enables you to enjoy making much of him forever? Does your happiness hang on seeing the cross of Christ as a witness to your worth, or as a way to enjoy God's worth forever? Is God's glory in Christ the foundation of your gladness?"
• "...there are then thousand gifts that flow from the love of God. The gospel of Christ proclaims the news that he has purchased by his death ten thousand blessings for his bride. But none of these gifts will lead to final joy if they have not first led to God. And not one gospel blessing will be enjoyed by anyone for whom the gospel's greatest gift was not the Lord himself."
• "If the enjoyment of God is not the final and best gift of love, then God is not the greatest treasure, his self-giving is not the highest mercy, the gospel is not the good news that sinners may enjoy their Maker, Christ did not suffer to bring us to God, and our souls must look beyond him for satisfaction."
• "Soul-health and great happiness come not from beholding a great self but a great splendor."
• "When I (Piper) say that God is the Gospel I mean that the highest, best, final, decisive good of the gospel, without which no other gifts would be good, is the glory of God in the face of Christ our everlasting enjoyment. The saving love of God is God's commitment to do everything necessary to enthrall us with what is most deeply and durably satisfying, namely himself. Since we are sinners and have no right and no desire to be enthralled with God, therefore God's love enacted a plan or redemption to provide that right and that desire. The supreme demonstration of God's love was the sending of his Son to die for our sins and rise again so that sinners might have the right to approach God and might have the pleasure of his presence forever."
• "In order for the Christian gospel to be good news it must provide and all-satisfying and eternal gift that undeserving sinners can receive and enjoy. For that to be true, the gift must be three things. First, the gift must be purchased by the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Our sins must be covered, and the wrath of God against us must be removed, and Christ's righteousness must be imputed to us. Second, the gift must be free and not earned. There would be no good news if we had to merit the gift of the gospel. Third, the gift must be God himself, above all other gifts."
• "...our commitment to compromise the great gospel means God used to get us there."
• "The gospel is the good news of our final and full enjoyment of the glory of God in the face of Christ."
• "The gift is Christ himself as the glorious image of God - seen and savored with everlasting joy."
• "...in the gospel we behold, by the Christ-given Holy Spirit, the glory of God 'in the face of Christ' and are thereby changed into his image." - Richard Daniels
• "...[are] people really being prepared for heaven where Christ himself, not his gifts, will be the supreme please?"
• "Nothing fits a person more useful on earth than to be more ready for heaven. This is true because readiness for heaven means taking pleasure in beholding the Lord Jesus, and beholding the glory of the Lord means being changed into his likeness (2 Cor. 3:18). Nothing would bless this world more than people who are more like Christ. For in likeness to Christ the world might see Christ."
• "'God is great!'" (Ps. 70:4). Not mainly, 'Salvation is great!,' but 'God is great!'"
• "The world needs nothing more than to see the worth of Christ in the work and words of his God-besotted people. This will come to pass when the church awakens to the truth that the saving love of God is the gift of himself, and that God himself is the gospel."

The Father's Cup

Yesterday, Good Friday, I listened to this sermon by Rick Gamache, pastor at Sovereign Grace Fellowship in Bloomington, MN. It's a narrative, depicting the events on the Crucifixion of Jesus. It's so good. So powerful. Not very long. Please take a listen! Here are some quotes that I quickly jotted down while listening:

"God claimed to be God; and it was called blasphemy."

"I will drink from this cup, Father...so that your glory may be vindicated & my name may be

glorified & so that the sheep that you have given me will see your glory and enjoy it forever. I will drink on behalf of our rescue mission."

"[Peter] denied the friend of friends...the friend of sinner...[yet] Jesus held Peter in the gaze of eternal love."

"Wine mixed with myrrh, a mild narcotic to dull the pain is given to Jesus...[but] Jesus is meant to feel all the pain, so he hands the cup back this is not the cup from Father."

"Their (Jesus and the centurion nailing him to the cross) eyes meet eternal love shines forth again and the centurion is undone.He looks away and lifts his hammer. In that moment, Jesus hears his own word of power...the word of power that holds the merciful centurion in existence, the word of power that causes the hammer to be...he's speaking it all into being, the soldiers, the priests, the thieves, the friends, the mothers, brothers, mob, the wooden beam, the spikes, the thorns, the ground beneath him and the dark clouds gathering above them. If he ceases to speak, they will all cease to be. But he wills that they remain."

"Jesus designed the median nerves in His arms that are working perfectly now. The pain shoots up those nerves and explodes in his skull as the cross beam is set in place."

Hudson + Maria Taylor (possibly the longest blog ever. more quotes. lots of them. all amazing.)

I read another great  book. Another must read. I have so many pages 'dog tailed'...or is it 'dog eared'? All the following quotes or my 'mini- paraphrases' are from the book Hudson and Maria Taylor: A Match Made in Heaven, written by John Pollock.

"Maria...[writing] to her student brother Samuel in London... : 'I met a gentleman and, I cannot say I loved him at once, but I felt interested in him and could not forget him. I saw him from time to time and still this interest continued. I had no good reason to think it was reciprocated, he was very unobtrusive and never made any advances.' She said she was led to take the matter to God at once."

" ' The Lord supplies your need now, and if your need grows greater, so will the supplies.' "

(Background: while Hudson and Maria were both missionaries in China, Hudson was pursuing a relationship with a gal back in England. He wrote many letters to her and her father, requesting her hand in marriage, and permission for moving his desired wife to China. This quote is from a fellow missionary male friend whom consoles Hudson after receiving this rejection): 'I know, dear brother, something of all the experience you speak of (being rejected): the Lord Jesus made such a season to myself the occasion of much personal manifestation of Himself.' "

(So long story short, at this time in their story, Maria is working for and living with, what is essentially, in my words, a Christian convent. The woman, Miss Aldersey is this older man 'in charge' of and 'temporary guardian' to all the young women working and living there. I think Maria is 20 or so...Anywho, so what has to happen is Hudson has to request permission from Miss Aldersey to see/marry Maria, but then Hudson and Maria find out that technically her uncle, living in England, is the one who will have the ultimate say. So, (evilish) Miss Alderdsey writes this letter to Maria's uncle, explaining why Hudson is this terrible guy, but Maria, quick thinking, writes a letter to her uncle from her perspective. Here's an excerpt):

" 'I do not wish to throw myself away, which Miss Aldersey seems to think I should do by marrying Hudson Taylor. Nor would I wish to unite myself to a man such as she thinks Mr. Taylor ought to be. But I desire his character and principles to be sifted.' A closing paragraph breathed unaffected piety: 'Though I sometimes feel that the greatest earthly pleasure that I desire is to be allowed to love the individual whom I have mentioned so prominently in my letter, and to hold the closest and sweetest intercourse with him spiritually as well as temporally that two fellow mortals can hold, I desire that he may not hold the first place in my affections. I desire that Jesus may be to me the chiefest among ten thousand, the altogether lovely.' Both Maria and Hudson had been taking refuge in The Song of Songs."

(In order to be 'approved' to see each other and marry, Hudson and Maria had to receive an interview): "Maria prayed secretly that 'if it was God's will, if it was not wrong, we might have an interview.' She was tempted to concoct and encounter, 'but I preferred that it should be of God's overruling and not of my arranging.'

(Finally Hudson and Maria are allowed to see each other. Before they marry, Hudson receives opposition from others. Since he is uneducated, and simply a missionary, he is pressured to return to England in order to "remove his anomalous position either by taking his diploma as a medical man or receiving ordination." After another respected male friend and missionary told Maria this, she responded): "Maria's answer showed the spirit of a girl: 'I would wait if he went home in order to increase his usefulness. But is he to leave his work in order to gain a name for the sake of marrying me? If he loves me more than Jesus he is not worthy of me - if he were to leave the Lord's  work for the world's honour, I would have nothing further to do with him.' 'She is a noble girl,' was Hudson's comment."

(Hudson becomes very ill. To give greater background, to my understanding, he was kind of and odd ball. Not very attractive and he had a lot of health issues. He would be forced to stay in bed for months at end, where he would meditate on God's character/Word. He was especially drawn to "two Hebrew place-names which the Old Testament not only records but explains: Eben-ezer and Jehovah-jireh. These ancient, queer-sounding names were potent to Taylor. he read in the seventh chapter of the First Book of Samuel that after a great victory given in immediate answer to prayer, Samuel raised a memorial stone 'and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.' Taylor read also in the twenty-second chapter of Genesis that where the Lord had stayed Abraham from sacrificing Isaac and had provided a ram. 'Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh.' "): "If cast down, or anxious Taylor looked at his scrolls. 'My faith...often, often failed, and I was so sorry and ashamed of my failure to trust such a Father. But oh! I was learning to know Him...He became so real and intimate.' "

(There were numerous times when they literally had nothing. No food for themselves, and no funds to assist others. Here's an account from a specific night they were experiencing such lack of physical provision...until...): "On a day in November, the cupboard almost empty, a mail arrived a week early. [Hudson + another missionary, Jones] nearly wept in gratitude, 'as we saw not only our needs supplied, but the widow and orphan, the blind, lame and destitute provide for by the...bounty of Him who feeds the ravens through the liberality of dear Mr. Berger (the man who gave such a generous monetary gift).' " (my thoughts: It all belongs to God. People like Mr. Berger are merely entrusted with such gifts, which makes giving easier, realizing it's not ours to begin with, but instead, a gift entrusted to bring glory to God and further His Kingdom).

(the next paragraph after Mr. Berger's gift...) "A fortnight before the wedding date the money bag dropped to a single coin; and no mail due. After a scrappy breakfast they faced starvation. 'We could only betake ourselves to Him who is a real father, and cannot forget His children's needs...' " (realizing their great need, they sell their clock and portable stove, but still had little to nothing, paying for transportation to sell the objects.) "Famished and disconsolate, [Hudson + Maria] searched their house from top to bottom, unearthed a packet of cocoa and brewed it. They refused an urgent loan from one of their servants, telling him, 'Our Father will not forget us.' 'Though [Jones] spoke with confidence, our faith was not a little tried as we went into his study and...cried indeed unto the Lord in our trouble.' They were yet on their knees when the servant ran in. 'Teacher, Teacher! Here are letters!' Days before schedule an unexpected mail brought another gift from Berger. That night Hudson held Maria's hand specially tight and offered her freedom, 'I cannot hold you to your promise if you would rather draw back. You see how difficult our life may be at times...' 'Have you forgotten?' she replied, 'I was left an orphan in a far-off land. God has been my Father all these years. Do you think I shall be afraid to trust Him now?' "

"...significant was the influence of Maria upon her husband. Her [spiritual] development had been more orderly; she served to steady Hudson's faith while he deepened hers...Maria...was largely responsible for the common sense and balance characteristic of Taylor at the height of his powers...Her passionate nature filled his warm-blooded yearning to love and be loved. She gave him full response, a fostering and feeding affection so that together they had such a reservoir of love that it splashed over to refresh all, Chinese or European, who came near them."

(Apparently Maria had a "squint" and an "incautious relative [who] suggested to Hudson and operation to cure [it]." This is Hudson's response to that relative): " 'I was very indignant! I loved her and I loved it. I loved her just as she was and everything about her. I would not have had it changed on any account. I would not have changed anything she was or did.' "

" 'The church is asleep; and armchairs and sofas and English comforts possess more attractions than perishing souls' "

(Upon another time of sever financial insecurity, with nearly all their money spent, Taylor was faithful in paying his tradesmen and servants...): "on..Sunday, when Taylor gave his normal church collection, 'in faith and as due to God,' he had nothing left but a few pennies...Prolonged embarrassments puzzled Taylor until it occurred to him that if God promises to meet all needs, 'the trial of faith is one of the needs which He ministers to and supplies.' "

(While looking at the large wall-map of China, that dominated his study...): "He viewed an Empire, 'it's vast extent, its teeming population, its spiritual destitution and overwhelming need' - four hundred million, as the population was then estimated in the West, and all but a few thousand ignorant of the name of Christ. Inland China weighed on him. The weight bore more heavily as 1863 turned to 1864, 'and prayer was often the only resource by which [my] burdened heart could gain any relief.' "

(This is a quote from Anne, another missionary woman, whose fiance, Crombie was asked to join the mission to reach inland China. Originally planning to wait until they were married, and make the journey to the inland, Crombie is requested to leave earlier, leaving his family and fiance behind. This is Anne's response to Crombie on the issue): " 'Go, George, and let the world see that you love the Lord Jesus more than me.' He was in Plymouth next evening...Unexpectedly, Anne was able to follow him out a fortnight later."

"If China had to wait for college graduates qualified to found, equip and develop full-scale stations, a century might pass before the more remote provinces so much as heard the name of Christ."

(In regards to financial support and Matthew 6:33 Seek ye first the Kingdom of God; and all these things should be added unto you.): " ' God is sufficient for God's work,' the leader of more than six hundred missionaries then active in China said: 'God chose me because I was weak enough. God does not use His great works by large committees. He trains somebody to be quiet enough, and little enough and then He uses him.' "

" 'A million a month dying in that land, dying without God. This was burned into my very soul. I scarcely slept night or day for more than an hour...These souls, and what eternity must mean for every one of them, and what the Gospel might do, would do, for all who believe, if we would take it to them!' "

(While visiting England, Hudson experienced this while attending church one Sunday): "As the full congregation rose to sing the last hymn, Taylor looked around. Pew upon pew of prosperous, bearded merchants, shopkeepers, visitors; demure wives in bonnets and crinolines, scrubbed children trained to hide their impatience; the atmosphere of smug piety sickened him. He seized his hat and left. 'Unable to bear the sight of a congregation of a thousand or more Christian people rejoicing in their own security, while millions were perishing for lack of knowledge, I wandered out on the sands alone, in great spiritual agony.' "

"To the world [Hudson Taylor] was a feeble creature - of weeby physique, without powerful friends, almost a pauper. But he had thrown himself on God, had become an instrument of the Most High. His intelligence, his will-power and sticking power, his charm, his capacity to inspire and foster affection and loyalty, had all been touched by the Divine; he had become greater than the sum of his parts. He had no  idea, in the last days of June 1865, how God planned to give him the men or means to evangelise inland China. But Hudson had not the slightest doubt that He would."

(While apart from Maria for a short time, Hudson experienced this): "His love for her invaded all of him, they were 'one flesh' indeed, each mystically a part of the other's thought, action and Christian service. Away from her he felt raw and aching; he missed her smile of encouragement, her laugh, her instinctive understanding of his feelings. In the 6 am train he scribbled to her in pencil, 'It is not pleasant for me to go to strange places and push myself forward, but the Lord helps me...Bless you,' he ended, 'and our precious little treasures. How I seem to miss their little voices, dear little loving pets. Kiss them for me.' "

(While during the same visit, as described above, Hudson was invited to speak at a Conference in England): "The evening meeting drew to its close. The Convenor arose, scanned his notes to get the name right, and announced that 'Mr. Hudson Taylor of Ningpo, China, will engage in prayer.' Taylor mounted the platform, gripped the rail to stop his hand shaking, closed his eyes on the largest audience he had ever stood before, and opened his lips. A contemporary recorded: 'I was deeply impressed with the simplicity and fervor of his prayer, and felt that he was speaking to a familiar Friend in whom he had perfect confidence and from whom real blessing was confidently expected. Hearts opened to this unknown young man who unconsciously lifted the level of the Conference by a prayer. A General invited him to stay. Many pressed round to question. The following afternoon, nervous as before, he had the great audience in the hallow of his hand.' "

(At the same conference as described above, Taylor told this story of a young Christian who had fallen overboard. Unsuccessful to aid him, Taylor looked over to see a fishing boat that had a fishing net that would be able to hook on to the man who was in desperate, immediate need. This was the dialog): 

"'Come and drag over this spot directly; a man is drowning just here!'"

"'It is not convenient!"

"'Don't talk about convenience! A man is drowning, I tell you!"

"'We are busy fishing, and cannot come."

"'Never mind your fishing," [Taylor] said, "I will give you more money than a full day's fishing will bring, only come - come at once!"

"'How much money will you give us?"

"'We cannot stay to discuss that now! Come, or it will be too late. I will give you five dollars" (then worth about thirty shillings in English money).

"'We won't do it for that," replied the men. "Give us twenty dollars and we will drag."

"'I do not possess so much; do come quickly, and I will give you all I have!"

"'How much may that be?"

"'I don't know exactly, about fourteen dollars."

'At last, but even then slowly enough, the boat was paddled over and the net let down. Less than a minute sufficed to bring up the body of the missing man. The fisherman were clamorous and indignant because their exhorbitant demand was delayed while efforts at resuscitation were being made. But all was in vain. Life was extinct.'

Taylor paused. He could sense hot indignation sweep the Scots at such callous indifference. Quietly he continued, 'Is the body, then, of so much more value than the soul? We condemn those heathen fishermen. We say they were guilty of the man's death - because they could easily have saved him, and did not do it. But what of the millions whom we leave to perish, and that eternally? What of the plain command, 'Go ye into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature'?"

(Same conference again...) "Taylor passed to the story of the ex-Buddhist merchant, and educated man, who had been baptised after attending the little church in Ningpo. 'He asked me soon afterwards, 'How long have you known this Good News in your own country?'

"'Hundreds of years.'

"'Hundreds of years! And yet you never came to tell us! My father sought the truth, sought it long, and died without finding it. Oh, why did you not come sooner?'

Taylor began his conclusion. 'Shall we say that the way was not open? At any rate it is open now. Before the next Perth Conference twelve million more, in China, will have passed forever beyond our reach. What are we doing to bring them the tidings beyond our reach. What are we doing to bring them the tidings of Redeeming Love? It is not use singing, waft, waft ye winds, the story.' The winds will never waft the story. But they may waft us..."

(Hudson speaking of the qualifications of people desiring to join the mission in China): "...workers must be satisfied that God had called them individually to labour in China for the good of the Chinese; must go forth to China on their own responsibility; and must look to God for their support and trust to Him to provide it and not lean on me (Taylor). That they must be prepared to labour without any guaranteed support from man, being satisfied that the promise of Him who has said 'Seek ye first the Kingdom,' etc...Remember this: You are going out to serve the Lord Jesus, not the China Inland Mission. The Mission might fail. Look always off unto Him. He will never fail you."

"Taylor did not rest at describing China's spiritual need and claims. He sought to deepen the spiritual life of the Church 'to such a point as to produce the missionary spirit.' 'What a power the going out of the party was in the Christian world at the time,' recalled a man who followed them next year. ' Many of course said it was madness. Others thought it was a beautiful step of faith.'"

(At the end of a public lecture in England, the Chairman rose to announce that a collection would take place in order to raise funds for Hudson, and this was Hudson's response): "If you all feel burdened, as the Chairman says, then that is one of the strongest reasons against a collection. I do not want your burden to be relieved by making a contribution here and now under present emotions. Go home burdened with the deep need of China. Ask God what He would have you do. If you give money, give it to any missionary society with agents in China...But in many cases God may want, not money, but yourself, or giving up a son or daughter to His service, or prayer. A collection leaves the impression that the object of the meeting has been obtained. But no amount of money can convert a single soul.'"

(Due to differing views on how to interact with the Chinese, specifically how to dress - western or authentic Chinese wear - there was a great dividing line that grew between those involved in the Mission): "The split must be healed or the Mission collapse. These months of spring and summer, 1867, brought full Maria and Hudson. 'I have known him under all circumstances,' Jennie [one of the young missionary women] told her father, 'and if you could see him daily you would indeed admire his self abnegation, his humility and quiet never flagging earnestness. very few in his place would have shown the forbearing loving spirit that he has done. No one knows how much he has felt these troubles nor how much he has suffered from depression. If he were not in the habit  of casting his burdens upon the Lord, I quite believe that what he has passed through he would have sunk under. Grace, not natural temperament, supported him.'"

"At thirty years of age Maria had reached her prime. She was worn with privation and recurrent illness; she had been tubercular since 1865. Thinness accentuated her height, and suffering would have left her pale had her complexion not been naturally rather dark.

The younger missionaries were slightly in awe of her. She was so obviously a lady, and she had sharp intellect and powers of concentration. They admired her skill in the language, literary, and colloquial, and the way she got close to the Chinese. They admired her strength of will, 'a woman of indomitable perserverance and courage, through troubles of every kind.'

This awe was tempered by affection. 'Ever since we left England she cared for me and treated me as one of her own family,' said James Williamson. 'Such a mother to us who were young in years and young in grace,' recalled one of the recruits of 1868. Like Hudson, 'she always sympathised with everyone and everybody. It showed often in little things.

She was bright and animated in matter and conversation but never impatient or ruffled, always serene whatever might stir without - or within her...Hudson could lean hard on her, drawing vigour from her spiritual maturity, her tranquility and faith, her unwavering affection. Ten years after their engagement they were still passionately in love with each other. She gave him and their work all she had, every ounce of strength, every thought that crossed her intelligent mind, all the force of her love. She allowed him to drain her, and if sometimes his demands were unconsciously selfish, she was no more aware of it than he was."

"Of the five children, Gracie, the eldest, aged eight, was the apple of the Taylor's eyes. She was the one link with their...life in China. She was bright and happy, she was able to understand more than her brothers what their parents were doing and why. Like most missionary children she was a passport to the hearts of the natives, she could prattle about religious in a way that might seem precious to a less sentimental generation, but which was sincere."

(Upon becoming critically, water on the brain, Gracie becomes unconscious and soon dies at the young age of eight. Because of the great hurt they were dealing with, the Mission, once split due to issues of attire, came together to support and comfort Hudson and Maria): "Gracie had saved the [China Inland Mission]."

"It was symbolic of her life. Maria loved Hudson fiercely, protectively, with instinctive awareness of his need. She did not fear for him...Her mind was in perfect peace because in perfect accord with her Saviour, her closest Companion, the source of her courage and wholeheartedness and her astounding ability to ignore physical weakness and fatigue."

(From Hudson to Maria): "'I do thank God, darling, for having given you to me, and for so long sparing you to me. May he long do so! But O! may he ever give us both to love him best, most constantly and with unfailing constancy. Then we shall not love one another too much.'" 

(Hudson): "'I hated myself, I hated my sin; and yet I gained no strength against it.'" the summer months intensified Hudson Taylor's inward conflict. He prayed, agonised, fasted, made resolutions, read the Bible more, without effect. 'Every day, almost every hour, the consciousness of failure and sin oppressed me.' He knew that in Christ lay the answer. 'I began the day with prayer, determined not to take my eye from Him for a moment; but pressure of duties, sometimes very trying, constant interruptions, sometimes so wearing, often caused me to forget Him. then one's nerves get so fretted in this climate that temptations to irritability, hard thoughts, and sometimes unkind words are the hardest to withstand.'

The more he struggled for holiness, for inward vitality that hope gave outward serenity, 'the more it eluded my grasp, till hope itself almost died out'. He never doubted that 'in Christ was all I needed, but the practical question was how to get it out...I prayed for faith but it came not. What was I to do?'"

(Still afflicted by spiritual battles such as the one above, Hudson receives a letter from John McCarthy, a dear friend and brother in Christ): "It was a long letter. He read on and on, attention riveted. 'I seem,' McCarthy wrote, 'as if the first glimmer of the dawn of a glorious day has risen upon me...I seem to have sipped only of that which can satisfy.' McCarthy had found the secret they sought. Hudson looked at the letter again. 'To let my loving Saviour work in me His will...Abiding, not striving or struggling...'

Hudson came to the last paragraph. 'Not a striving to have faith, or to increase our faith but a looking at the faithful one seems all we need. A resting in the loved one entirely, for time, for eternity. It does not appear to me as anything new, only formerly misunderstood.'

Hudson was amazed at his own blindness. His eyes opened wide...'If we believe not, He abideth faithful.' And I looked to Jesus and saw (and when I saw, oh, how joy flowed) that He had said, "I will never leave you".' In shorter time than it took to describe afterwards, Hudson grasped that he must not struggled to have strength or peace but rest in the strength and peace of Christ. 'I have striven in vain to abide in Him. I'll strive no more. For has not He promised to abide with me - never to leave me, never to fail me?' The effort to 'get it out' was a mistake. 

'I am one with Christ,' he cried as he explained the glorious discovery to the whole...household, hastily gathering them together and reading McCarthy's letter. 'It was all a mistake to try and get the fullness out of Him, I am part of Him. Each of us is a limb of His body, a branch of the vine. Oh, think what a wonderful thing it is to be really one with a risen Saviour.'"

"'Things may not be, in many respects, as I would wish them; but if God permits them to be, or so orders them, I may well be content.'" -Hudson

"'God reigns, not chance.'" -one of the young missionaries

(At the end of this book, Maria becomes deathly ill. In order to aid in comforting her while she died, Hudson began to cut off the long locks of hair, giving some relief to the heat that wracked Maria's body. Upon losing her locks, Hudson asks if she wants each of the children to receive a lock. Her response): "'Yes, and tell them to be sure to be kind to dear Miss Blatchley (their nanny/caregiver during this time of Maria's illness)...and...and...and to love Jesus.'

When he stopped cutting she put a hand to her head.

'That's what you call thinning out?' she smiled. 'Well, I shall have all the comfort and you have all the responsibility as to looks. I never do care what anyone else  thinks as to my appearance. You know, my darling, I am altogether yours,' she said. 'And she threw her loving arms, so think around me, and kissed me in her own loving way for it.'"

(After an extremely rough night, after the hair cutting incident, from above): '...it was dawn, and the sunlight revealed what the candle had hidden, the death-like hue of her countenance. Even my love could not deny, not her danger, but that she was actually dying. As soon as I felt sufficiently composed I said to her, "My darling, are you conscious that you are dying?"

'She replied with evident surprise. "Dying? Do you think so? What makes you think so?"

"'I can see it, darling."

"'What is making me die?"

"'Your strength is giving way."

"'Can it be so? I feel no pain, only weariness."

"'Yes, you are going Home. you will soon be with Jesus."

"'I am so sorry."

"'You are not sorry to go to be with Jesus?"

"'Oh no! (I shall never forget the look she gave me, as looking right into my eyes, she said:) 'It's not that. you know, darling, that for ten years past there has not been a cloud between me and my Saviour.' (I know that what she said was perfectly true.) 'I cannot be sorry to go to Him,' she whispered. 'But it does grieve me to leave you alone at such a time. Yet...He will be with you and meet all your need[s].'"

(Maria then kisses Hudson and the children. The household gathers quietly and watches as she grows weaker. When asked if she had any pain, she responds saying "no." She sinks into unconsciousness, and spasms.) "In the unforgettable words of Hudson's daughter-in-law long after: 'The summer sun rose higher and higher over the city, the hills, and the river. The busy hum of life came up and around them for many a court and street. But within one Chinese dwelling, in an upper room from which the blue of God's own Heaven could be seen, there was the hush of a wonderful peace.'

Soon after nine the breathing sank lower. Hudson knelt down. With full heart, one of the watchers wrote, he 'committed her to the Lord; thanking Him for having given her, and for the twelve and a half years of happiness they had had together; thanking Him, too, for taking her to His own blessed Presence, and solemnly dedicating himself anew to His service.'

The breathing stopped at 9:20. 'When she was really gone,' wrote Rudland, 'he just went out into another room - some time before he returned. It seemed that as though the victory had been won - alone with God. He seemed calmer then until the end.'

The great heat compelled that she should be buried that evening. Hudson went himself to buy the coffin. As they coffined her he spoke the words, 'The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord.'

Rudland was beside him. 'At the very last when she was in her coffin he stood taking the last long look. He had to rush away again upstairs to be alone for a time.'

His baby. His wife. 'My heart wells up with joy and gratitude for their unutterable bliss, though nigh to breaking. 'Our Jesus has done all things well.'" (These are the literal last words - and paragraphs - of this book. How amazing.)

Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die | No. 3

Reason No. 3 | To Learn Obedience and Be Perfected

Although he was a son, he learned obedience

through what he suffered.

Hebrews 5:8

For it was fitting that he, for whom and by whom all things exist,

in brining many sons to glory,

should make the founder of their salvation

perfect through suffering.

Hebrews 2:10

• "Christ was sinless. Although he was the divine Son of God, he was really human, with all our temptations and appetites and physical weaknesses. There was hunger (Matthew 21:18) and anger and grief (Mark 3:5) and pain (Matthew 17:12). But his heart was perfectly in love with God, and he acted consistently with that love: 'He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth' (1 Peter 2:22)."
• "...when the Bible says that Jesus 'learned obedience through what he suffered,' it doesn't mean that he learned to stop disobeying. It means that with each new trial he learned in practice - and in pain - what it means to obey. When it says that he was 'made perfect through suffering,' it doesn't mean that he was gradually getting rid of defects. It means that he was gradually fulfilling the perfect righteousness that he had to have in order to save us."
• "The point is this: If the Son of God had gone from incarnation to the cross without a life of temptation and pain to test his righteousness and his love, he would not be a suitable Savior for fallen man. His suffering not only absorbed the wrath of God. It also fulfilled his true humanity and made him able to call us brother and sisters (Hebrews 2:17)."

All quotes from John Piper's book, Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die.

Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die | No. 2

Reason No. 2 | To Please His Heavenly Father

Yet it was the will of the LORD to crush him;

he has put him to grief.

Isaiah 53:10

Christ loved us and gave himself up for us,

a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Ephesians 5:2

• "[Jesus suffering and dying] was a breathtaking strategy, conceived even before creation, as God saw and planned the history of the world."
• "...[the] substitution of Christ for sinners...was God's idea...This explains the paradox of the New Testament. On one hand, the suffering of Christ is an outpouring of God's wrath because of sin. But on the other hand, Christ's suffering is a beautiful act of submission and obedience to the will of the Father.
• "Oh, that we might worship the terrible wonder of the love of God! It is not sentimental. It is not simple."
• "The wrath-bearer was infinitely loved."

From Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die by John Piper

New Book | More Quotes

New book time! This has become a 'classic' for me, as much as John Pipes (read: John Piper), still living, can be classic. I've read it before and I'm so excited to be reading it again. It's great. So get excited. And ready. About to blow you away with some quotes from 50 Reasons Why Jesus Came To Die:

Introduction:

• Jesus was "very God of very God."
• The Gospels (Matthew-John) are "the testimony of those who knew him and were inspired by him to explain who he is."
• "I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down on my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again" (John 10:17-18).
• "The controversy about which humans killed Jesus is marginal. He chose to die. His heavenly Father ordained it. He embraced it.
• "True Christian love humbly and boldly commends Christ, no matter what it costs, to all people as the only saving way to God." 
• "The death of Jesus Christ is the most important event in history, and the most explosive political and personal issue of the twenty-first century.
• (Speaking of those who ran the Jewish concentration camps): "They never knew the Christ who, instead of killing to save a culture, died to save the world."
• "God himself was the chief Actor in the death of his Son, so that the main question is not, 'Which humans brought about the death of Jesus?' but 'What did the death of Jesus bring about for humans - including Jews and Muslims and Buddhists and Hindus and nonreligious secularists - and all people everywhere?"

Reason No. 1 | To Absorb the Wrath of God

Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a

curse for us - for it is written,

"Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree."

Galatians 3:13

God put [Christ] forward as a propitiation by his blood,

to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness,

because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

Romans 3:25

In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us

and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

1 John 4:10

• "If God were not just, there would be no demand for his Son to suffer and die. And if God were not loving, there would be no willingness for his Son to suffer and die. But God is both just and loving. Therefore his love is willing to meet the demands of his justice.
• "God's law demanded, 'You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might' (Deuteronomy 6:5). But we have all loved other things more. This is what sin is - dishonoring God by preferring other things more than him, and acting on those preferences."
• "We glorify what we enjoy most."
• "The Creator of the universe is infinitely worthy of respect and admiration and loyalty. Therefore, failure to love him is not trivial - it is treason. It defames God and destroys human happiness."
• "The meaning of the word "propitiation" (from Romans 3:25 -see above)...refers to the removal of God's wrath by providing a substitute. The substitute is provided by God himself. The substitute, Jesus Christ, does not just cancel the wrath; he absorbs it from us to himself."
• "We will never stand in awe of being loved by God until we reckon with the seriousness of being loved by God until we reckon with the seriousness of our sin and the justice of his wrath against us. But when, by grace, we waken to our unworthiness, then we may look at the suffering and death of Christ and say, 'In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the [wrath-absorbing] propitiation for our sins.' (John 4:10)."